CHAPTER 94
I do not own Skip Beat! Yoshiki Nakamura does.
~ Longing ~First Requiem ~
She left a few days later, after the soiree. With the promise given to call him and the promise from him that he would call regularly.
The taxi door slapped against her as she exited it. The ocean air hit washed over to her nose the moment she was out, and her shoulders loosened. You could see it was the end of Mai to the way the sun hit the deep blue on her side. All shiny and bright like sparkles of fairy dust thrown on a carpet of liquid blue.
As she carried Snow and her luggage on her house lane, she felt the oddness of being home after so long mixing with the soothing comfort it brought. She felt herself relaxing, yet it also felt foreign and lonely. It was tinted with a certain realization of what wasn't there. With her. What wasn't close anymore. Just next door, or in the same city.
She unlocked her door with a bittersweet sigh, and once inside dropped the huge holdall travel bag she had been carrying on her shoulder, then opened the cage of her cat.
Snow rushed out in madness before planting herself in front of her bowl, and Kyoko spent the next couple of minutes feeding her. She followed this by inspecting her cupboards and fridge to see what she would need to purchase for next week, and made a list of things to do in between moments she would be at filming studios or modelling. After that, she spent a good hour unloading her suitcases and other bags, sorting everything out as she knew two more boxes would come in ten days or so. She hadn't brought back everything, obviously. She would return to Japan in a couple of months, normally. She just had settled an arrangement with the owner to only pay for the rent but not electricity, water and other bills she was meant to pay directly to him when using the flat. It reduced things to half, at least. Not that she lacked the means but she needed a certain organization and being economical and sensitive on things she could control didn't hurt.
After and only after that did she message him to tell him she had reached home safely. He messaged her back to ask if he could call only minutes later. She checked her phone, it was reaching half past 8 a.m. here, meaning it was past midnight in the next day for Japan. She told him he should sleep but he insisted to check on her, and her phone rang.
They talked. And talked.
And it was only two hours later she persuaded him to go to sleep.
She felt awful keeping him this long up when he needed to get up early next day. Yet, the smile wouldn't leave her face. She was bad.
A few days passed as Kyoko settled back into her life in San Francisco, reprising her role of detective for the second season. She used the time she wasn't acting to return to her songs, her mind buzzing with energy to expel. And when she wasn't at that, she would go for some walks on the beach, enjoying the warmer weather of early.
But no matter what she did, he never left her thoughts.
She couldn't help rethinking about that evening. Couldn't help remembering about the night after the storm.
Her brain would just not give her any peace.
Like a broken scenario, repeating in circles, her mind would keep her up, bringing back the memories, twisting them, sprinkling magic over them to shift them into something different. Something more.
Her thoughts would return to that night or early morning when he brought her back in the cabin. Her mind would trick her, then. Making her think that when he had refused to leave, when he had stayed near her that evening, it was because of something else. Not just out of concern or a past trauma. Not just because she was a friend. But because she was special, because he would have not been able to stand otherwise. Her mind would make her envision that he had loved having her in his arms that night. That if he had held her that tight, it was because he couldn't let her go. That he would have wished for more, had they had not been that tired. She would rethink their quarrel too. She would rethink everything. Through glasses where he had cared so much about her that it would have been the reason he went out to look for her.
She would rethink his anxiety and fretting as a fear to lose her. In the middle of her sleepless nights, through delirious states of tiredness, she would rebuild her reality around. To make it a little sweeter, to imagine she could have a taste at happiness. Even knowing it would be worse after. When she would remind herself, all that was a lie.
And then, there was that soiree.
When he approached her. When he looked at her. When his long legs climbed the stairs in soft sure padded steps. When he tickled her with her own hair. When he teased her with it. The way his intense eyes had looked at her. His words to her. His compliments.
That moment would remain in her mind like a reflect, the wonders of what a fairy tale with him would be like ghosts in this instant. It would stay in her heart, like this, forever more. Like raw frost, capturing sweetness of life when it hits the last berries of some bushes. The cores like a beating heart of sweet juicy flavour with the outside white with flakes of ice wrapping them.
And if you were to try a bite, your tongue would taste the breeze of ghostly standing still memories, then the sweetness would explode in your mouth as the colours of that memory would come back to your mind. As if that instant had just walked by you. And no matter the times she played it again, her mind refused to not paint it into more sugary tones. To not describe his intentions as more than they were. In her daydreams, and in the subconscious of her slumber. That aspect was always the same.
Every hour, every minute, every second of that evening had felt like a dream when she thought about it. Like out of this word. Like if suddenly, the stars had aligned to let her savour a so softened switched reality.
During that soiree, not one did he leave her side. If only for his speech and to receive his prices. But from what she recalled, he had spent more time with her than with his colleagues. When it had been all about him and said colleagues that night.
He talked with her all through it. His arm had been more often than not around her, delighting her senses with his warmth again and again.
He smiled and laughed with her so many times she lost count of them but she had never felt so radiant, and she had smiled so much that her cheeks hurt later that night. She felt like he had gone out of his way to make her laugh that evening. He even pulled her to dance when there was no dance floor set up. Just some room in the middle of the high tables on the sides.
The way he had looked at her…
During that night, for one, one tiny blink of time, she felt like she was his. Like she meant the world to him.
Like he would do anything to make her smile.
She still had the music they had danced on in her mind, and it had brought out a new song out of her, already composed in her head before she would hit the lands of San Francisco state.
That stare…
She was haunted by it. Her song playing in her mind, enlivening her dreams and her memories with even more feelings she really did not need.
"Electrized,
As in a daze,
His eyes hypnotize.
Locking around my heart
Radiating joy like a silent sun
Whispering in a quiet hum
Confused secrets you keep in your heart.
This stare, those eyes,
This stare, those eyes,
They shine, they glow, they electrify,
They shine, they glow, they electrify.
Like sun, like magic.
Do not, do not,
Please do not look at me like that.
Why do you look at me like that?
Am I imagining?
I must be dreaming.
As in a daze,
His eyes hypnotize.
Ohhh,
Please do not look at me like this.
I'm lost, I'm confused,
I'm going to break a fuse.
Illusion, glimpse of a moment,
My mind rejoice in my confusion,
Playing, playing,
Shifting your expressions,
Matching my heart's desire,
To torture the fire.
Do not, do not,
Please don't look at me like that.
Why must you look at me like that?
Am I imagining?
I must be dreaming.
Stroking the feelings,
Losing feet in reality,
Until there is no more,
No more breaking apart,
Imagining, feelings,
Everything is twirling inside.
Why, Why, Why?
I know the notes,
Every quote,
I memorized the whole music.
Your cues are in my hands, in my eyes,
Your cues are in my mind, in my heart,
There is no changing the tune,
No cry, no scream will change that refrain.
It is a one note lonely harmony.
No trick will change the music.
Why, Why, Why?!
I know, I Know,
No begging, no screaming will change that tune.
I know the dead end, the lonely refrain.
So why?
Do not, do not,
Please don't look at me like that.
Why must you look at me like that?
I must be dreaming.
I'm imagining.
Ahhhh~,
So, that's why,
That's why, that's why,
You cannot hear me.
All this time,
I just had been dreaming.
This stare, those eyes,
This stare, those eyes,
They shine, they glow, they electrify,
They shine, they glow, they electrify.
They touch my soul.
Like sun, like magic."
And then, she would wake up.
And scream.
And cry, holding her sides as the reality she so much wished for, broke as the dream dissipated.
§§§
After that, she decided to try to keep herself busy to exhaust her too much to think. But unfortunately for her, while she had her the detective show reprising its shooting, it was rarely lasting the whole day and even when it was, she still had often some days without filming regularly.
And while she had some modelling going on, it was rather calm as the high of the working season hadn't started.
So, she decided to do activities outside. It wouldn't solve anything, obviously. You didn't cure the unsolvable. But if she were too exhausted to think, it might help her peace of mind and to have dreamless sleep at night.
She did not take her distance from him, though, or avoid him. She just didn't have the will anymore. She just kept herself busy and him too, de facto limiting their interactions as they were both very occupied in consequence. But also, since she spent so much time tiring herself, she had less time to worry about their discussions or being unable to react unnaturally when he or she called. She just acted and reacted.
And that's how, uncharacteristically for her, she let herself be dragged around sometimes by Kayla. When she wasn't spending some alone time on the roads, or somewhere else, climbing, walking and such.
She was also looking through more acting job offerings, and still wondering which ones pick. She had several offers for roles in the States, but she also had a couple in Great Britain, one in Italy and one in France.
She was planning to peruse some of them in depth on this bright end of morning, and to busy her mind with manual activities. It had been officially ten days she was back and Summer had officially started to kick in.
She had driven to one of her favourite spots. It was less of a sunbathing one and more of an area to go surfing, windsurfing or to do sailboat or jet-ski drives. Meaning there was less crowd usually, and if you paid attention, there was still a small section to bath in the sea.
She was planning to do some rounds of jet skis before focusing on her scripts.
She rent one for a couple of hours and drove on the tubes of high sea aimlessly, letting out her pent-up energy and frustration into the heavy bumps and big jumps of the vehicle over the waves, her whole focus directed to a forward movement. Or to withstand the brute force of the ocean when confronted to the throwbacks of the tide after passing through some of the bigger waves. She stopped counting time after a while, just letting the moves embodying her whole being. And when she finally returned the engine, she had exceeded her borrowing time a little.
She dropped herself on her towel after that, feeling exhausted all of sudden and fell asleep.
She was awoken barely minutes later by voices that sound familiar and groaned as she discovered Kayla and Kyle staring down at her.
"Look who we just found." A bubbly voice chirped in.
She dropped back her arm over her eyes, feeling like the shades of the parasol weren't enough for her tired eyes. She was really starting to feel the weariness of her poor sleep, sinking in bones.
"Hi. How?"She managed.
Kyle chuckled.
"Kayla said you were spending a lot of time doing outside activities again since you came back," Kyle said, "And the season of bigger waves just started."
She grumbled, not feeling convinced.
"Okay, okay. I'll confess, she apparently peeked over some of your schedule, and there were only two things written if you were free for today, as a possibility. And since it was sunny, only one remained."
"Nasty to tell on me, Kyle."Said Kayla but her grey eyes were shimmering with mischief.
"She is too smart to be fooled, and you know it."
Kyoko glanced at them warily, smelling a trap as huge as a balloon pointing out… Then she decided she didn't care, and rolled around on her towel. They would give her some hours to rest if they were smart. Eyes shut, she heard more than she saw the vibrations of them sitting in the sand besides her.
Then, she felt the shuffles on both sides of her body, and she got the distinct feeling they had just lied down too. Her nose caught Kayla fresh flowery perfume on her right, and internally she sighed. She was no escape this, was she?
"You are sweet and all but I'm tired." She grumbled in her arm, switching to lay on her stomach.
"How you can stay under this furnace with a tee and Bermudas is beyond me."Kayla, chirpy lightly deep voice rumbled, and she heard the rustle of clothes as she removed some of her clothes.
"Technically, it's a crop top, and the Bermuda is white and very loose. Don't criticize our girl's tastes when she looks so sexy in it."Commented Kyle with amusement and a smile crept in on Kyoko's face at the laughs she could hear in her friend's voice. She hadn't seen his friend in a long time. It was pretty nice seeing him. He also always knew how to temper down Kayla overexcited behaviour. His sweetness did good to appease her grumpiness, and she found herself opening her eyes to smile a greeting at him.
"What did she rope you into?"
She heard the sudden shutter of her camera and resisted the urge to throw the damn thing into the sea with a struggle. She had not seen her in a long time after all.
He smiled in compassion and grimaced at Kayla when she switched the objective to him like a possessed woman. Kyoko rolled to lay on her back and elbows, hunching up with a sigh.
From his towel, her friend muscular form took a sheepish mannerism and he plopped his palm on his face, and crawled back on his butt. The message was crystal.
Ohhh… I'm not going to like this.
"I don't find it safe to tell you now. For the next hours, just know we just hoped to lay around with you like starfishes."He said between fingers, and with a smile as innocent as he could. Which was pretty convincing, considering it was him. But he was with Kayla, meaning it had no value at all. In the background, the shutter kept clicking as their friend photographed every millimetre of the beach and sea. Yup, she was pitying the landscape, to be the assault of such a perusing.
"But?"
He grimaced again.
"We do have something in mind for later on, and we are hoping you will accept for once. We didn't see you in a long time after all." He replied in fast bullet clear points, as if he was trying to get it out like a chore list. Which he probably was.
"And Kayla put you in charge of convincing me." That wasn't a question.
"I did." Said the voice passing by before walking a few steps away to immortalize the other side.
Kyle gave her an endearing contrite smile and mouthed his sorry.
"Why not telling me now?"
"Because I just saw your face. I don't know what you are doing at night but it is clearly not what you should be doing." He said with a slightly concerned expression as he eyed her the purple under her eyes.
She looked at him suspiciously, wondering where the trap was or if she actually had an opening to bow her way out of this.
"So, you are giving up?"
He shook his head with one his few threatening grins. Now, that was scary. Kyle was always soft. Him acting this way was like a war declaration. She dropped back on her towel.
"Fuck."
He laughed.
"Sorry sweetie but Kayla does have a point. We didn't see you in too long, and you are playing the lonely wolf in your gloomy tower a bit too much."
"And in less melodramatic?"She grumbled, lifting her arm to look at him.
He grinned wickedly.
"You are not escaping us this time. No matter the outing."
"I could just as well have already accepted if you are putting your all into this." She said, pulling her arm back where it had been.
He chuckled and sat up.
"I knew you were smart."
"So, why not telling me now?"
"Resistance is futile but you will still riot if I tell you now. We will give your nap. You need it to hear this." And yet, contrition made its way on his face. Ohh, it would be terrible.
"Joy. How relaxing."
Still, it was true she was tired. And even more so that she hadn't seen them in long. If she didn't know that Kayla plans so rarely get in alignment with her own tastes, in terms of amusement, she would feel pretty content to be able to spend the time with them. She wanted to catch up with them and hear how was the boyfriend of Kyle, and if Kayla had met anyone new. Or if she had locked any new interesting contracts. An exposition or a travel trip to take pictures in some fancy areas. She knew her friend dreamed of that.
Speaking about her, she returned to sit besides them with a joyful expression.
"Finished abusing the background with your shutter?"Kyoko inquired.
She pulled her tongue at her and Kyoko replied in kind.
Her friend shot a look at Kyle.
"You convinced her?"
"Like it had been a choice."
"No, but he is definitely the smoother talk between us two."Kayla admitted.
"And you are more like a bull. Or a pretty bulldozer. And I'm always smooth."Kyle slid softly before winking at Kyoko as he said the last part. That elicited a throttle out of her. And she wondered if his boyfriend knew he was dropping these kinds of things around when he wasn't there. Though, neither of them were the interest target so she also knew it had never been an issue. "No wonder your boyfriend can't resist you if you are batting your eyelashes at him like that."She whispered to Kyle just before Kayla exploded with the previous comment.
"Be happy you are my friend, Kyle, otherwise I would strangle you for comparing me to a bull." Her angry expression only lasted so long before she sighed with much resignation. "Even if parts of your words are true."
Laughs firework-ed around one quiet instant after this admittance. That was the thing with Kayla. She might be a bit pushy and sometimes blinded side into her own little world but she was honest and recognized her flaws easily. She was also the fast welcoming kind and a very kind and generous person. And her artistic vision was top-notch.
She just wished Kayla would be a tint less pushy in pulling her into interests that were only hers. Though, in her interior, Kyoko could recognize sometimes it could do her good. But she didn't necessarily like it on the moment. Still, as always, her friend had managed to melt her irritation.
"As Kyle said, if you are one, then you are the prettiest of them all." Kyoko said with a grin and Kayla grinned back.
"I'm going to take a dip, I suppose you aren't joining?"She asked and after Kyoko shook her head, her friend pecked her cheek with a "glad you're back", just before rising back from her towel in her bikini and walking to the sea. Kyle had stayed too, saying he would bath later. He wanted to enjoy the sun for now.
Once Kayla had taken a couple of feet away, Kyle closed to her and hugged her.
"I'm glad you are back too. I missed you."
She hugged him back briefly before releasing him, but he kept one arm around her shoulders in a locking hold.
"So, tell me. What's gotten you into such a state?"She looked at him, playing dumb. But damn it all, he was way too astute. He had always been one of the few to read her a little too well.
"What state?"She asked, feigning to not get where he was going.
He shot her an unimpressed look.
"Not to me. You might be grumpy when we are dropping on you unannounced but not to that level, and that doesn't explain your ghost face or haunted eyes."
She looked to the side.
"I think you are reading too much into this. I just had a couple of bad night because of jet lag. Will pass soon."
"You have been back for more than ten days now. Please."
She ignored him.
"Come on. Talk to me. You know I won't judge you."He said softly.
She sighed.
"I know."
"Then – "
"No. I won't talk."
"But you admit there is something."
She turned even more to the side, and he released her. They stayed in silence for a while before he suddenly bumped her shoulder.
"I won't force you if you don't wanna talk about it. Just know that you can turn to me anytime you would feel like it."
"I know you won't."She said after another minute.
He sighed and she glanced at him, he looked puzzled.
"It's that bad, huh."He said, frowning in concern, and she wanted to slap herself. Great, now she had managed to worry him.
"It's not that bad."She protested hastily, but not very convincingly she had to admit.
"You had always been a loner since I know you but not trying to get back in touch after having to absent yourself for a few months, you never had done it. You clearly do not sleep, and not matter how much you try to hide it, I can see sadness in your eyes."
She protested again, tried to reassure him. Several times. And he didn't insist to know what the matter was. But his worried frown wouldn't leave his expression.
She didn't want to worry her friend. It was not his fault she was in this state.
"Fine. There is something. But I don't really want to talk about it, and really, you make it look way more dramatic than it is."
The light-brown strands of her friend fickled away as the sea wind blew in the direction and as he tilted his head to look at her better.
"Why do you not want to talk about it?"
She pondered fighting him again, then gave up. She might just as well give him these bits of truth.
"Because there is nothing to do about it. Because it's a loaded subject for me."
He lifted back his arm and side-hugged her again.
"Girl… Just talking can help, sometimes." But she just shrugged. She didn't want that. She didn't want to think about it.
He hugged her tighter.
"What or who did this to you?" She shrugged again, and that's when she noticed she was doing his shrug, and it hurt even more. She dropped her head on her knees.
The tears were coming and she didn't want him to see. She felt too vulnerable. Too raw.
"Girl…" The suddenly infinitely soft tone in his voice broke her and she felt the humidity seeping into the thin soft cotton of her pants.
"… I need to know, so I can beat it up."He said with some hotness back in his voice, and she chuckled through her pain. But the face of Ren appeared in her mind, and her next words escaped her in a rough mumble. "… I don't want you to beat him up, I – "
She stopped her words with abruptness, realizing her slip at the same time her friend did.
"… Him?"
She waved her hand above her head without looking back at him, trying to dissipate the train where his thoughts would assuringly be going. "Way of speech."She lamely tried to excuse her mishap.
"Not it wasn't."
He pulled her up from her knees to make her look at him.
"There is a him?" He asked with excitement before it popped out like a balloon as he saw her face. "Is it a boy?" He then asked in a way more subdued tone, and she smiled dismissively.
"I still don't want to talk about it, Kyle."
He looked at her for a long second before nodding, and just gave her a big hug. One that actually helped.
Then, he told her to rest, and she fell asleep almost immediately, way beyond exhaustion after the emotional outburst, and knowing her friend was watching over her.
§§§
She woke up to a weird distorted sound. A mix of Kayla's chatter but it was like her voice was ringing in her ear. Then, it was her voice only.
She ignored it, determined to return to her nap. Rays of warmth were warming up her shoulders and her tail bone, so, she knew she still had time.
The incessant babbles did not stop for one second, however, and as her groans ticked by to the echoes of her sleepy state wasting away, she just wished to bury her head into the sand to avoid any disturbance.
She hadn't had a good restful nap in- … forever. Just let her sleep.
" … irl, wake up. Someone is there for you." Her ears pierced out but her mind refused to make out the words.
"Come on…"
Then, after what felt like a second, she heard Kyle's voice on the left side of her head, that talked, soft but clear.
"Someone is on the phone for you."
Phone. What phone? Who was calling? She was sleeping. They should all shush. She buried her face in her sand towel to shut out the world.
She felt and heard an odd thud by her right side again.
Then a joyful but slightly mischievous stringing chatter came in from her friend again.
"Since you refuse to listen, I'll just drop this by your ear, then."
Drop? What drop? Wait. What did she drop?
Then she gave up, too tired. She waved the words of her friends away with a hand and a mhm-mhm, intended on resuming the peaceful void of slumber.
Then, she heard a masculine rumbling chuckle, and nearly jumped out of her skin.
A low delighted greeting echoed in her ear next moment, and she blinked her eyes open, trying to make sense.
"What?"-groan – "How? Ugh."Vastly coherent, she knew but she pained to gather her neurones at the moment.
Her ear tingled at the familiar laugh that continued, and that's when she was reminded of the cool sensation by her earlobe, and blindly put her palm to it, realizing it was a phone.
" … rry to wake you up." His refined earthy voice was saying with those smooth intonations she knew he had when he was joyful.
She groaned in response, as her mind commented some more how beautiful his voice sound. How sex those tones were. Hypnotizing even.
She sighed aloud, trying to say something but it was hard. Just as she had been sleeping without thinking about him, he called. It was like she was haunted by her charming fairy.
"Hello."She lamely said.
"Hello again." He chirped back, and why did it seem that the gruffer she was, the more cheerful he got. It was like he loved to see her annoyed or messed up.
There was a pregnant pause on the other end before he cleared his throat and told her he just enjoyed to be witness of her in the natural.
"Ha."
She snorted to redirect her desire to get embarrassed. Did it mean he would love to see her in most simple attire? It had totally felt like he implied that.
"What is funny?"
"Nothing. My drowsy mind is making me think sillinesses."
"I would still love to hear what you have in your mind."
She groaned and dropped back her head on her towel. He cleared his throat again.
"Can't you wait I'm properly awake to go full charge on the teasing part?"
"I don't think so."
"Why?"
"Too funny."
"Bully."
"And too cute."
There he went again, with weird compliments that didn't make sense. How was her being silly could ever be cute?
"Damn weirdo fairy." She said as she rolled around and sat up.
He laughed heartily at her response, and despite herself, despite the lack of sleep, the pain, the longing, the missing, despite everything; she felt her lips break into a smile.
"Wow. Now that is a smile."She heard Kyle and Kayla talked on the side but ignored them.
"I'm not bothering?"
"You are never." She said before realizing her words, and she coughed. "I mean, you know I love to talk with you."
He remained silent, and she thought she had put him through unease. I wanted to bang her head into the sand. Why did she have to say this? Why couldn't she control herself?
Fuck it all.
On the surface, though, she tried to remain composed.
"Ren? You there?"
"I'm here. Sorry." He replied but then reacted opposite to the direction her thoughts had taken, shocking her in her relief. "I was just- …-pretty touched." He started back smoothly. "But don't you know the risks you expose yourself to by saying this?
"No?"She said, confused by what he meant.
"I might feel freer to pester you after such a line, you know."
"Ah." She laughed before continuing lightly, knowing inside of her that no matter if he acted up on his words or if it were just a joke, she would be just as happy of anything he would let her have. "Risk taken."
"Duly noted."He said and his tone was so softened, so smoothly subdued, she felt a shudder run down her back as she stretched her hearing to catch his words.
"So," He said after a minute, "I gathered you are with Kayla?"
"Ah, yes. I'm with her and Kyle." She pushed her hair away. "There was no filming today, so I decided to go spend some time by the ocean and they joined me. And, as you got, I was napping."
He laughed.
"Yes, I got that part." He said and she could hear the tease in his voice but then he started back and she heard it morphing to concern. "Just a normal nap or some troubles with sleeping?"
"It's just jet-lag adjustment, I think." She lied adroitly, and she heard the snort of Kyle on her left. "It will pass."
Ren hummed in response, and she rested her top more comfortably on her bent knees, naturally relaxing through the discussion.
"So, how is work?" She asked, trying to distract him from this subject.
He groaned.
"It is going pretty good. But nothing that interesting, don't change subject." He said knowingly and she cursed, making him laugh. He hadn't bite. But he changed subjects on his own and she started to breathe more easily again. She just couldn't find any good excuse for her poor sleep at the moment besides jet lag. She would have come very soon very short on answers if he had pushed further.
"I'd rather hear about your jobs anyway. Or about what you are doing with your friends." He told her.
She smiled at her phone indulgently, confused, though, at to what he could think even remotely worth of interest in this. Work was work. He knew how it went.
"We are just chilling."She replied to his second inquiry. "Nothing especially particular."
"Technically, Kayla and I were planning to pull you for a dive in the sea before you got the mysterious call." Kyle said with the voice of someone dying of curiosity, and as she glanced at him, he gave her questioning eyes.
"Oh." He said, and she thought she could hear disappointment in his tone. Even if she was just imagining it, she herself didn't want to cut the line, yet. "I wouldn't want to interrupt."
She threw a glare at Kyle whose eyes shot up to the roof, and she realized she might never had had to do that before.
"I didn't accept yet. They are just tricking me into participating."
He snorted.
"We are not. When you are at the beach, you must bath at least once. It is mandatory." Kayla said.
"Agreed." Kyle concurred.
"Though it might help to make us more lenient if you let us in on who you are talking with and let us participate." Kyle said, watching his nails in such a bad attempt at innocence she wanted to strangle him.
She mouthed his name softly but he ignored her, and dropped against her side to hear the other end of the conversation. Kayla cheered and padded Kyle's shoulder with approval.
In her ear, she could hear the effort it took for Ren to stay serious.
"How rude of me. I didn't even introduce myself. Though, I would swear I already did with your friend, Kayla." He said, tone as falsely serious as one could come."
"You did. Are you really going to indulge them?"She asked. He didn't know what he was signing up for. They would bombard him with questions.
Kyle poked her side as he added.
"'Them', as if we are so horrible. That was mean. Now, that is obligatory to talk to him to know who can push you to try to keep him all to himself."
Kayla bursted into cackles at that.
Yup. She would throttle Kyle. After feeding him seafood. He hated seafood.
"You want to keep me all to yourself?"Ren questioned oh-so-innocently, having apparently heard Kyle comment. Deeply. Forever. She didn't echo her thoughts and only sighed aloud at all of them.
"Look what you are doing, both of you."She said, pointing at the phone. "You are going to give him even more matters to tease me!"
"Renewal of material is a very serious matter." Ren commented very professionally.
"Shut up."
He just laughed. And her friends by her side joined.
"Fine. Don't regret it later when they ask you half a thousand questions." She said and pushed on the speaker of the phone so that everyone could hear him without sticking themselves to the machine.
"Kayla, please to hear of you again."Ren said off-the-go with a smile in the voice.
"Likewise." Kayla answered.
Kyle to turn Kyoko mouthing 'What is that voice' while fanning himself. She rolled her eyes at him but grinned.
"And – ?"
"Kyle June. Nice to meet you, friend of Kyoko who is named as-?"
The deep laugh of Ren got out from the device before he replied in a tone she found way too charming and that provoked, to her scandalized shock, a pretty blush on her friend face.
"Ren Tsuruga. Pleasure to meet you by interposed phones."
"Control yourself": She whisper-mouthed to Kyle who replied in the same manner but with much dramatism.
"I suddenly regret already being with a very-loved boyfriend."
She swatted at him but couldn't help her snort.
"Since when do you know Kyoko?"Kyle asked instead.
"A long time." She was stunned. Not by Ren's response, it was true after all, but it had looked so much like he was making a statement she had to pause.
She saw her friends grin but ignored them.
"Maybe you will be able to tell us what's the secret to get her out, then?"Kayla questioned eagerly, to Kyoko appalment, while Kyle doubled over.
"I might have – "
But he stopped himself in the middle, and Kyoko heard sounds in the background. That's right, what time was it again at the moment?
"I'm sorry for cutting this short," He suddenly started back, "I wished I had been able to talk more but I'm required for next scene."
Oh. Already?
But they had only been talking for a few minutes. She sighed. She knew how it was. He must have been at work to begin with. It wasn't his fault he had to end the call.
"Don't worry. I understand." She replied softly.
"I'll call back later. Try to rest." He said at her intention before adding. "Have a good day everyone."
"Of course." Kayla and Kyle replied.
"Go back before they wait for you. And don't skip on eating." Kyoko said.
"I promise. Talk to you soon."
"Goodbye."
"Bye."
Her words echoed but he must have had to cut already.
She missed his voice already.
Kyle jumped on her shoulders the minute she was done.
"Talk."
"No."
Kayla giggled.
"No one has such a sexy voice." Kyle started.
"Apparently, someone has."Counted Kayla with a smile.
Kyoko shook her head at them, sure that if she let it slide on her feathers like she was indifferent, they would drop the matter. But Kyle continued.
"But there is more, much more impressive." He said with a conspiracy voice and overspilling grin.
She couldn't help herself, she arched a brow in curiosity at Kyle tone, as the two young women waited in batted silence as their friend raised an index, like it was of the upmost importance.
"No one, and I'm insisting," He resumed softly with an all-too-knowing softened grin towards Kyoko, "no one makes our Kyoko smiles that way. No one. Usually that is."
He finished mimicking her expression of rose up eyebrows as he looked at her.
"You are over-reading it, Kyle. Kyoko told me herself they were friends. Close friends, sure, but – " Kayla was saying.
Kyoko stayed stoic. She swore she did her best to stay stoic. But it is the compassionate kind eyes of her friend that finally broke her.
She blushed and turned her face to the side.
Kayla stopped her rambling abruptly to look at her.
"No way, no way, no way. Last time I pestered you, I asked you precisely if there was more, and you swore it was just because he was an old friend."Kayla said with new excitement. "You said you used to be very close before you left, and that you missed him. But you told me that was everything. Damn actress. I should have known. You looked so convincing when you dismissed me, I believed you. Despite your face that made me doubt the first thing, when you had picked up at the time."
"It is still true. We are close friends."
They looked at her and she looked at them, and they cornered her with piercing stares until she hunched her shoulders in defeat.
"It is the truth."
"But there is more."Kyle said.
She sighed angrily at the nosiness of them all. She didn't want to talk about it. Fine. Sure. She felt better. Especially now she had been able to talk with him. But still. She didn't want to remind herself of-
She shrugged but they just crossed their arms.
She caved. She shot back her stare at them to cut this conversation once and for all.
"He doesn't see me that way, okay?"She said with a such a finality and absolute it stunned her two friends. "Now, I don't want to talk about it ever again, am I clear?"
"Crystal."Kayla said angrily, yet she could see some understanding in her eyes.
Kyle just nodded, though his eyes were sad.
Time passed but the festive mood has gone and passed, soured by the recent discussion. Yet, at the end, her friends cheered up enough to propose her to postpone the gathering of today to
later, determined to not let her escape partying for once.
She accepted, apologizing for her mood.
They just smiled, and then an abrupt hug from the both of them surprised her.
"Don't worry."
"You'd be too perfect if you never got angry and upset at us."Kyle said.
"And your grumpy side is sexy."Concurred Kayla as they retreated and left her.
She laughed, her spirits a tint better. Despite.
§§§§
End of Chapter.
PS:Hi everyone. Yes, i'm back with another chapter. I hope you will like it. I wonder if some are guessing where we are going with this. Thank you for all the kind reviews for last chapter. Kisses.
Mimagfan.
AUTHOR OUT.